312 PHYSICAL SCIENCE IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 



him, the very great remoteness of the planets, as 

 compared with the distance of the moon. " What 

 contagion can reach us," he asks, " from a distance 

 almost infinite ?" 



Pliny argues on the same side, and with some 

 of the same arguments 16 . "Homer," he says, "tells 

 us that Hector and Polydamas were born the 

 same night ; men of such different fortune. And 

 every hour, in every part of the world, are born 

 lords and slaves, kings and beggars." 



The impression made by these arguments is 

 marked in an anecdote told concerning Publius 

 Nigidius Figulus, a Roman of the time of Julius 

 Caesar, whom Lucan mentions as a celebrated astro- 

 loger. It is said, that when an opponent of the 

 art urged as an objection the different fates of 

 persons born in two successive instants, Nigidius 

 bade him make two contiguous marks on a potter's 

 wheel, which was revolving rapidly near them. On 

 stopping the wheel, the two marks were found to 

 be really far removed from each other; and Ni- 

 gidius is said to have received the name of Figulus 

 (the potter), in remembrance of this story. His 

 argument, says St. Augustine, who gives us the 

 narrative, was as fragile as the ware which the 

 wheel manufactured. 



As the darkening times of the Roman empire 

 advanced, even the stronger minds seem to have 

 lost the clear energy which was requisite to throw 

 " Hist. Nat. vii. 49. 



